Sexy stars of the Hammer horror glamour years owed it all to a Brummie

Sep 6 2009 by Paul Cole, Sunday Mercury

SHE is the Brummie beauty on whose cleavage the Hammer horror film empire was built.

When Hazel Court appeared in The Curse Of Frankenstein in 1957, male movie fans gasped in delight, female filmgoers frowned in disdain – and critics savaged the first Hammer horror to be made in bloodthirsty colour.

The buxom redhead with striking green eyes and rosy cheeks became overnight the studio’s very first pin-up.

Within a short time the 31 year-old from Sutton Coldfield – daughter of cricketer G W Court – was receiving fan mail by the sackful, and made a point of replying to each and every one.

She mixed with the glitterati of the era, appeared on magazine covers galore and became a household name.

Hazel, a married mum, died at the age of 82 in her American home last year. Now, her story is featured in new book Hammer Glamour, a lavishly illustrated tribute to the sexy stars who adorned the studio’s sinister stories.

After growing up in Sutton Coldfield, she studied drama at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Alexandra Theatre. Then just 14, she was soon earning rave reviews – and got her big break in 1944 flick Champagne Charlie.

She never looked back, later telling friends: “Fans tell me how their children have been brought up watching horror films, and that they will keep going on. That’s very rewarding and makes it all worthwhile.”

The first actress ever to sign a contract with movie mogul J Arthur Rank, Hazel was loaned out to Hammer, who were searching for someone to play prim and proper Elizabeth in The Curse Of Frankenstein.

They wanted someone who could combine vulnerable innocence with steamy sensuality, and producers recalled she looked “luscious”.

With Peter Cushing as Baron Victor von Frankenstein, Hazel as his hapless fiancee Elizabeth and Christopher Lee as the monster, the movie was a sensation – but mostly for the wrong reasons.

The British Board of Film Censors ordered cuts. “It goes far beyond what we are accustomed to allow even for the ‘X’ category,” they said, and called for the “overall unpleasantness to be mitigated”.